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27 September 2005, 11:18 am

FRANZEL Takes First Race

Sonar World Championship 2005

Cowes, Isle of Wight, Great Britain

Race one of the Sonar World Championship in Cowes, Isle of Wight, Great Britain got underway on the Solent in testing conditions. Grey skies and a stiff south westerly greeted the sailors but Ian LALLOW, the Principal Race Officer gave them a nice long line, biased to the pin end.

With most of the fleet opting for the pin, it was inevitable that there would be a few caught OCS. The British El Torro was over and returned, but three boats sailed the race in vain, including Droh COHEN (ISR), the Israeli Paralympic gold medallist.

Local boat Bertie started in the middle of the line and tacked to port early, along with top local boat Billy and leading American, Pete GALLOWAY in Fast Forward. When they tacked back, however, they found that the right had not paid.

Others, including the USA sailor Dave FRANZEL sailing Spring, who started at the pin, headed to the left hand side of the beat and it was these who came out on top as they approached the first mark.

FRANZEL, coming in on port, tacked right under Skip SHUMWAY's lee bow and led around the top mark and beat SHUMWAY to the hoist at the spreader mark. In third place, came a Cowes boat, Andy CASSELL's Jenny which was the best of the British at this stage.

With the wind hovering around 20 knots, it was a fun ride down the run for most, but not for the crew of Echo who wiped out and laid the boat on its side for quite a long time, making them the latest qualifiers for the Sonar Swimming Club. Other new members of this exclusive club were the crew of Billy, who had an uncharacteristic broach and lost four places.

At the leeward mark, FRANZEL still held the lead but it was CASSELL who grabbed second place, rounding inside SHUMWAY with Graham and Julia BAILEY's (GBR) We're Here a close fourth. Behind them, GALLOWAY gained three places after rounding the top mark in tenth, while Billy made it round in eleventh place.

Up the second beat Spring was fast and stayed right of middle with a loose cover on his opponents. CASSELL was also going well as the furthest right of the leaders.

As the boats approached the windward mark for the second time the Race Officer signalled a shortened course and it was FRANZEL's Spring which led across the line to chalk up the first win of the series.

In second place came We're Here which just beat Jenny to the line by inches, with SHUMWAY crossing fourth, only to discover he had been OCS at the start. Other premature starters were Steve SHEPSTONE's Nefarious and COHEN's Shellie. GALLOWAY made a good recovery to end up fourth while Billy climbed to sixth.

Top Ten After One Race

Pos	Nation	Boat	Helm	Crew	Crew	Crew	Crew	R1	Pts
1	USA	Spring	David FRANZEL	Todd COOPER	Wade EDWARDS	Gene HINKEL		1	1
2	GBR	We're Here	Graham BAILEY	Julia BAILEY	Dave ROSS	Duncan GRINDLEY	Anna BAILEY	2	2
3	GBR	Jenny	Andy CASSELL	Rudy JURG	Henry BAGNELL	Simon CLARKE		3	3
4	USA	Fast Forward	Peter GALLOWAY	Jim LINVILLE	Paul STEINBORN	Ched PROETOR		4	4
5	USA	Troll	Greg ANTHONY	Rick MYERS	Tony ALLOTT	Brian HAYES		5	5
6	GBR	Billy	Paul BOWEN	Duncan BATES	Shaun KELLETT	Dave THOMPSON		6	6
7	GBR	Scintillate	Laurie GUSTAR	Steve COLE	Paul AIREY	Ian MOORE		7	7
8	AUS	Hibiscus	Jervis TILLY	Pete TINDALE	Kate TINDALE	Andrew DALLAS		8	8
9	USA	Your Mother	Eric SNAVELY	Rick SULLIVAN	Donna FAUST	Jeff SULLIVAN		9	9
10	GBR	Chimera	John ROBERTSON	Hannah STODEL	Stephen THOMAS	John WAITE		10	10